Summit County officials are bracing now for a $5 million budget deficit next year.
“It will have significant impacts,” county commissioner Tamara Pogue tells Krystal 93 news director Phil Lindeman. “Even before we knew about the state’s budget deficit, we were still as a county very concerned about what cuts we were having to make. We knew this in the last budget cycle.”
This local deficit comes as the county is spending more than ever on roads, like a rebuild of Swan Mountain where the price per mile is $3 million. Summit lost a state grant that would have subsidized more than half the cost.
“There are some tough decisions that will have to be made at the county level, regardless of how the state and Federal discussions play out,” Pogue says.
Colorado counties rely on property taxes for most of their funding, which can be hampered by the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR, and other recent tax relief bills that some blame for gutting local budgets.
Summit also needs to recoup Federal funding it might lose for child services and the 911 center.
As Summit looks to trim $5 million – a “huge amount” for a county of 31,000 people, Pogue says – commissioners are nervous about smaller spends that are critical but often overlooked.
“There are a lot of things that property taxes pay for that voters may not realize,” Pogue says. “Elections, law enforcement, 911, human services, planning and zoning. There are a lot of things that counties do that might not seem as easy to embrace as education or the fire districts, but that people still need.”
At the state capitol lawmakers are scrambling to save more than $1.6 billion next year, which likely means cuts to education and Medicaid funding. Those are two of the state’s largest expenses.